Weather: 12C Light cloud cover with short sunny spells.
Water: BOATS - WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN MY PEG??
Peg: (Next to Chairman, best behave!) non permanent 6 (spinners section)
Baits: Pinkie, pink ones with a few white ones, chopped worm, Dynamite Baits Silver X black.
Weight: 11lb 6oz (1st)
When I saw this fixture on the list at the start of the year I thought one thing; "I'll have a nice lie whilst the boys gruel that one out". However with the league on a knife edge I had to give it a go, even though the only think I have used a canal for in the past was as a latrine.
Well over to Alans I go in the week and ask Chris to sort me out, he hands me an empty packet of size 22 Kamasan B511's, very funny says I, look closer says he, agh says I they are quite small!! Onto elastics and a my double number 3 is laughed off in the chatbox on MFS and I am instructed to use a single use of size 3, I have stronger elastic in my knickers! But now I am sorted and prepared for scratching around for bites on the canal.
On arrival I am surprised to see the canal has a lot of bankside vegetation and the weed beds offer a lot of options to fish to, at least they would if it was a commy snake lake stuffed with fish. The banter is flying around at the start of the match about certain members fondness of the paste and whether they were going to fish it today. Apparently one did, I shall leave that judgement up to you...
OK onto the session and the rigs I set up were quite simple nearside reeds, track and far side. I started down the track and didn't have a bite for 20mins and never went back to that line so I won't go over rigs for that.
For the near side (red boxes) I set up a DC10 in 4x8 for 2 1/2 ft of water (that went to 2ft through the match) this was on 0.10 powerline to a 0.07 hooklength and size 22 B511. This was matched up to a 3 elastic through the top 2 sections of a match kit. My intention here was to feed a small ball of groudbait at each side and feed for bite with pinky over the top.
For the far bank reeds (blue) I intended to fish sloppy mixture of worm, peat and groundbait with a worm over the top. I set up one of my homemade silver pencil floats in 0.2g in 3ft of water on 0.13 powerline to initially 0.10 and a size 18 B511 but changed to a 0.13 and a 18 B911 as the match went on as I kept bending the predecessor hook and the line kept going week around hook due to amount of perch being caught. This was matched to doubled 4 elastic in order to drag fish from the reeds. I did not bump a single fish on this set up.
As previously stated I started my match down the track messing around on punch and pinkie to no avail. I had fed my left hand near side line but did not want to go on them too early. I placed my rig into the hole in the reeds and the float kept sinking to which I thought I had majorly over shotted it, upon lifting my rig out no3 hi-viz elastic is streaming out of my top kit and perch no1 is in the keepnet. I then kept on catching down this side consistently ficking 5 pinkies over the line every 2 fish. After 45 mins of catching I fed my right hand swim so that I had a back up line should this line slow.
Eventually after 90mins of perch bagging the swim started to slow right down. I swapped over and re-fed a ball of groundbait and 12-15 pinkies. The other swim had perch there again, it wasn't as prolific but I was catching (which did not hit home until later) so I was building a weight.
At 1 o'clock and after some boat traffic and lock movement I noticed a drop in the water levels and my nearside lines were dead. Time to feed and try the farside swim. A small pot of sloppy choppy went over and was left for 15mins. I then went over with a half a dendy on the hook to see float bury instantly and the biggest fish of the day graced my landing net, a 8oz-9oz perch. I fed with a toss pot every 3 fish initially and then upped the feed to every 2 fish when the swim really picked up.
One thing I noticed was that when boats went through I went straight back over to the far swim with and a larger specimen would take the hook bait, maybe due to the extra cloud in the water, who knows? In the last 30 mins I had slowed on the far bank so switched to the quicker nearside and caught well at 3/4 depth (20inches) and alternating sides and feed to maximise the swims.
At the weight in I could not call my weight and had 5lb to beat which I thought would be close. When I got my net out I couldn't beleive the amount of fish I had caught! I had to double take when the needle went beyond 10lb and I was really chuffed to have done such a good weight on a venue I was considering to be a write off for me. I think I shall now retire from Canal fishing on a high and concentrate on improving my less than adequate commercial fishing haha!!
Water: BOATS - WHAT ARE THEY DOING IN MY PEG??
Peg: (Next to Chairman, best behave!) non permanent 6 (spinners section)
Baits: Pinkie, pink ones with a few white ones, chopped worm, Dynamite Baits Silver X black.
Weight: 11lb 6oz (1st)
When I saw this fixture on the list at the start of the year I thought one thing; "I'll have a nice lie whilst the boys gruel that one out". However with the league on a knife edge I had to give it a go, even though the only think I have used a canal for in the past was as a latrine.
Well over to Alans I go in the week and ask Chris to sort me out, he hands me an empty packet of size 22 Kamasan B511's, very funny says I, look closer says he, agh says I they are quite small!! Onto elastics and a my double number 3 is laughed off in the chatbox on MFS and I am instructed to use a single use of size 3, I have stronger elastic in my knickers! But now I am sorted and prepared for scratching around for bites on the canal.
On arrival I am surprised to see the canal has a lot of bankside vegetation and the weed beds offer a lot of options to fish to, at least they would if it was a commy snake lake stuffed with fish. The banter is flying around at the start of the match about certain members fondness of the paste and whether they were going to fish it today. Apparently one did, I shall leave that judgement up to you...
OK onto the session and the rigs I set up were quite simple nearside reeds, track and far side. I started down the track and didn't have a bite for 20mins and never went back to that line so I won't go over rigs for that.
 |
| Please excuse the mess, I was half way through packking up when I dedcided to take photo.... |
For the far bank reeds (blue) I intended to fish sloppy mixture of worm, peat and groundbait with a worm over the top. I set up one of my homemade silver pencil floats in 0.2g in 3ft of water on 0.13 powerline to initially 0.10 and a size 18 B511 but changed to a 0.13 and a 18 B911 as the match went on as I kept bending the predecessor hook and the line kept going week around hook due to amount of perch being caught. This was matched to doubled 4 elastic in order to drag fish from the reeds. I did not bump a single fish on this set up.
As previously stated I started my match down the track messing around on punch and pinkie to no avail. I had fed my left hand near side line but did not want to go on them too early. I placed my rig into the hole in the reeds and the float kept sinking to which I thought I had majorly over shotted it, upon lifting my rig out no3 hi-viz elastic is streaming out of my top kit and perch no1 is in the keepnet. I then kept on catching down this side consistently ficking 5 pinkies over the line every 2 fish. After 45 mins of catching I fed my right hand swim so that I had a back up line should this line slow.
Eventually after 90mins of perch bagging the swim started to slow right down. I swapped over and re-fed a ball of groundbait and 12-15 pinkies. The other swim had perch there again, it wasn't as prolific but I was catching (which did not hit home until later) so I was building a weight.
At 1 o'clock and after some boat traffic and lock movement I noticed a drop in the water levels and my nearside lines were dead. Time to feed and try the farside swim. A small pot of sloppy choppy went over and was left for 15mins. I then went over with a half a dendy on the hook to see float bury instantly and the biggest fish of the day graced my landing net, a 8oz-9oz perch. I fed with a toss pot every 3 fish initially and then upped the feed to every 2 fish when the swim really picked up.
One thing I noticed was that when boats went through I went straight back over to the far swim with and a larger specimen would take the hook bait, maybe due to the extra cloud in the water, who knows? In the last 30 mins I had slowed on the far bank so switched to the quicker nearside and caught well at 3/4 depth (20inches) and alternating sides and feed to maximise the swims.
At the weight in I could not call my weight and had 5lb to beat which I thought would be close. When I got my net out I couldn't beleive the amount of fish I had caught! I had to double take when the needle went beyond 10lb and I was really chuffed to have done such a good weight on a venue I was considering to be a write off for me. I think I shall now retire from Canal fishing on a high and concentrate on improving my less than adequate commercial fishing haha!!
